Barbecue bravado led to race

A MOMENT of bravado at a summer barbecue in the suburbs ended with a 151-mile endurance race in the Sahara desert. John Dyson, 33, was cooking burgers with pal Neil Cornick, 35, last year when they decided to enter the world's toughest race - the Marathon des Sables in Morocco.

A MOMENT of bravado at a summer barbecue in the suburbs ended with a 151-mile endurance race in the Sahara desert.

John Dyson, 33, was cooking burgers with pal Neil Cornick, 35, last year when they decided to enter the world's toughest race - the Marathon des Sables in Morocco.

During the seven-day event, in temperatures of up to 45C, they had to cope with sandstorms, camel spiders and vultures.

It was the equivalent of six marathons back-to-back, but each painful step was for a good cause as they expect to raise more than £15,000 to help teenagers battling against cancer.

John, who lives in Didsbury with wife Lindsey, 31, and son Jack, aged six months, said: "My friend Neil, from London, and I were at a barbecue at my house when we started asking ourselves `What would be the toughest thing we could do?'

"We've already run a marathon and a couple of half-marathons so we decided to do the Marathon des Sables, the world's toughest foot race."

Gruelling

John, a regional director at Robert Half International recruitment consultants in Manchester city centre, finished grilling the burgers and then began a gruelling nine-month training regime for the challenge. He was doing two marathons a week, had changed his diet and had stopped drinking alcohol before the race finally began last week.

So he and Neil were very well prepared for the competition, which is so tough it claimed one person's life this year.

John said: "It was by far the toughest thing I have ever done, but it was an unbelievable experience.

"We slept in tents held up by sticks, drank 80 litres of water and I went through two pairs of trainers as we made our way over dunes, mountains and the desert plain.

"We just had to keep going. I kept dreaming about my duvet and about drinking a glass of cold beer as I ran along.

"But going through that makes you think of those children who are fighting against cancer and the things they go through.

"It was worth it in the end because we raised more than £7,000 for the Teenage Cancer Trust and my company have said they will double what we get, so we should raise more than £15,000 altogether."

He added: "I don't know what my next challenge will be. There's a race in the Arctic Circle, which looks good, but I've promised Lindsey I won't go on any more adventures until at least 2009."